Inaugural Innovative Tournament Draws Big Crowd

After weeks of hearing the women in his clinics beg him to host a 105 tournament, Boubacar Toure finally caved.

It paid off.

105 is a game that he plays at the end of his clinics. Doubles teams take their side of the court, and Toure feeds them a ball and they play to gain points. An opponent’s basic error earns you one point, a winner is worth five points, a net volley winner is worth 10 points, overhead slams are worth 20.

The first team to 105 points wins.

It’s a popular game among women in clinics. The players are having fun, but also coming to the net more and strategizing.

Toure uses the game in many of his adult clinics, but when he continued to get requests from his players to host a tournament based solely on it, he was initially hesitant. He never held an nontraditional tournament in the past, and wasn’t convinced he could generate enough interest. Eventually, his assistant tennis director, Laura James, persuaded him to just try it.

The day of the tournament, he had 17 teams, broken into two levels of competition. Five of his tennis professionals were on hand to assist on the courts, feeding balls and keeping score.

USTA Middle States placed a new emphasis on facilities running innovative tournaments, to try and get a new demographic of people into tournament play. Adult innovative tournaments is one of the five different programs that qualifies facilities for incentives through Middle States Provider Program Support.